“O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain; for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain; America! America! Cut agri subsidies out, lest the deficit rise up to the skies and the country goes bankrupt now.”

OK, that probably won’t happen, but it’s an even-money bet that spending-cut measures in our nation’s capital will include at least two programs heavily invested in our state’s agriculture industry. Direct payments to farmers and federal crop insurance are among the targets of some deficit hawks.

And with commodity prices at record levels, the argument against some of the cuts is a difficult one to make. Row crops such as rice and soybeans, which cover the eastern half of the state, are all trading at sky-high prices. Farmers are reaping the benefits, to be sure, but big numbers on the Chicago Board of Trade don’t mean that Arkansas farmers are all walking in tall cotton. Just as prices for consumer goods have risen, prices to produce food have gone up, too. Fuel and fertilizer, especially, cost much more than they did just a few years ago, and tractor replacement parts cost about the same per pound as medium-quality diamonds. That’s a bit of a stretch, but not much of one.

So, farmers aren’t exactly in the poorhouse, but a day of reckoning is coming.

Direct payments are likely to dramatically drop or vanish entirely. Sen. John Boozman pointed out in an e-mail conversation that Arkansas farmers receive nearly $250 million annually in direct payments.

“The safety net also serves an important function to mitigate risk in lending by assuring community banks and other rural lenders that farms will be projected,” he said. “If we undermine the safety net, it is very possible that farmers could have trouble accessing the credit they need to run their farms season to season.”

Sen. Mark Pryor agreed, contending that farmers can’t forever count on high prices for their crops.

“We should all have a shared sacrifice to get our fiscal house in order. Our farm safety net programs should not be cut so much that they are unable to perform,” he said by email.

Also of concern is any significant cut in federal crop insurance. This is the program that keeps farmers afloat if a crop doesn’t come in. This year’s flooding along the White River bottoms is a perfect example of how that program can save a farmer’s year when Mother Nature’s wrath idles John Deere.

To be sure, some have abused the program. More than one farmer has sprinkled a few rice seed on unplowed dirt, dragged up a pitiful levee or two, never turned on a well and then collected the insurance money when the crop failed to prosper. That’s not a failure of the program. That’s fraud. And those caught abusing the program should pay back every dime and eat and sleep on the government’s dime for a while behind bars.

But when the river overflows for some unseen or uncontrolled disease wipes out a crop, farmers need a safety net, and federal crop insurance is it.

Boozman downplayed the importance of federal crop insurance in all areas. He is correct that not all farmers use or need the program, but those who do depend on it.

Pryor disagreed with President Barack Obama’s plan to cut $8 billion from the program, saying such a cut would go too far. He said he hopes that congressional action limits such a cut.

Blanche Lincoln, former U.S. senator from the Delta, often said the state’s farmers produce the safest, most abundant food supply in the world. She was right then. That statement is correct today. If we want to talk about national security issues, ask yourself whether you want to rely on China or Russia for our food.

Obviously, America’s farmers must have supports in place to keep them in business feeding not only Americans but hundreds of millions around the world. Those supports will, though, adapt to the current budgetary climate.

That is as certain as today’s continued harvest.

Rick Fahr is publisher of the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway and former editor of The Courier. His email is rick.fahr@thecabin.net.